


And Apprentice

by Katherine



Category: Dolittle (2020)
Genre: First Person, Gen, Narrated by Tommy Stubbins, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24476626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: "It is past time for a new plaque on the door," Doctor Dolittle mentioned.
Kudos: 21





	And Apprentice

"It is past time for a new plaque on the door," Doctor Dolittle mentioned. But to do without having a time when that section was bare, he gave no direction to remove the old, as yet. He waited until the new plaque which he had secretly ordered was ready and in his hands.

When I read the new words "and apprentice" I quite wanted to thump my chest with pride. However, I was still at that time learning gorilla language from Chee-Chee and from the Doctor. I pretended to myself that it was worry of inadvertently communicating something rude or nonsensical which stayed my hands. Not the fact that I would never have the resonance that Chee-Chee or even the Doctor did. It is difficult to not be grown yet, when you are a boy.

I was permitted to help take off the old plaque and set on the new. The Doctor having rummaged out three screwdrivers, four of us made a co-ordinated task of it at the four corners, prying at the fasteners. The Doctor started, slowly, demonstrating probably as much for me as for Chee-Chee's clumsier hands, not that he would have embarrassed either of us by saying so. Poly, of course, had no need of a tool. She balanced herself impressively at the other side, undoing the fourth bolt with her beak, her head jerking anti-clockwise.

For putting on the new plaque, Chee-Chee held it in place while the three others of us secured the new bolts. When they were nearly in, Poly waved the Doctor back and flew to his shoulder. As I proudly made the last turns to every bolt, Chee-Chee grunted approval. I fancied the Doctor and Poly let that (wordless, unless it was a word in the language I was as yet unfamiliar with) speak for them also. 

There it was, at last, plain as anything in the metal raised letters. I was one of the household, officially the apprentice of Doctor Dolittle.


End file.
